


It's like in those stories

by GoldenLunarlight



Category: The Old Guard (Comics)
Genre: M/M, og posted on tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:34:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27178642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenLunarlight/pseuds/GoldenLunarlight
Summary: based on:Imagine this: Joe obviously having been resurrected but still playing death, until Nicky rolls his eyes with a smile and kisses him, Joe, awakens with a theatrical gasp: “Ah, only true love’s kiss!”(og posted on tumblr but deleted it)
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 4
Kudos: 60





	It's like in those stories

They know the stories, they’ve lived them (“Quynh only wanted to help those children,” Andy says one night, shaking her head when they hear the story of two children, a witch and a gingerbread house). As they travel across countries, some nights they become the storytellers. It’s Joe who starts the tradition, telling fables of monkeys and sharks, of sly brothers and friendly sisters. Some centuries later, as they travel through Italy, it’s Nicky who begins instead of Joe. It’s not as natural as Joe at first, but it’s not too different from the tales of the Bible he used to preach, only this time he tells tales of merchant’s sons slaying dragons and of three daughters and three sons. It takes a few more decades until Andy takes over, as some of the tales reminded her of a very long, almost forgotten, time ago. How wonderful, she thought, that I am not the only thing that has been around for over 6000 years. 

Over the years, as they pass through towns and developing cities, they hear snippets of tales and realize that they’ve changed. They were bound to, as oral tales often do, but this time it was more, the tales no longer had unwanted pregnancies, or worse, and the murders and bloodshed were minimized or at least euphemized. The moralistic tone was still present, but less and less. The romantic part became more and more dominant. 

During a short stay in Germany, they ran into a street performance of Sleeping Beauty. At first, there’s a frog and twelve wise women, then spindles and rose thorns. 

“That’s not how it went,” Nicolò whispers into Yusuf’s ear, but Yusuf doesn’t hear him.

As the prince kisses Briar Rose, for that was her name now, and she awakes, Nicolò glances at Yusuf who has a playful gleam in his eyes. 

Nicolò should’ve seen that as a warning, The next mission they are on is not too dangerous or difficult but still Yusuf gets momentarily distracted and is struck down, and doesn’t resurrect immediately and Nicolò crawls over to him and he could swear that he saw Yusuf’s eye open and close, “Yusuf?” But there is no reaction. After so many deaths, they know how long it takes for certain wounds to heal, so for Yusuf not to react it’s worrying, to say the least. He’s too focused on the man in front of him he doesn’t realize that Andy is leaning on her labrys, trying not burst out in laughter, until Nicolò realizes what Yusuf wants as he registers a faint puckering of Yusuf’s lips. Nicolò shakes his head. 

“Unbelievable,” He whispers to him in Arabic as he leans down to softly kiss the love of his life and beyond. Yusuf awakes with a gasp and big smile, “True love’s kiss, my heart.” He quickly kisses Nico’s temple and gets up, pulling Nicolò up once he’s standing.

“I’m sorry, my love, the opportunity was too beautiful not to take on, but I won’t do it again.” 

That turned out to be a lie. Yusuf doesn’t do it when he dies during an important mission, but it still happens now and then that he doesn’t immediately open his eyes and by now, Nicky doesn’t even hesitate before kissing him and doesn’t blink twice when Joe’s puts his hand on his heart and says something about true love’s kiss. 

Even more recently, it changes to a dramatic “It worked!”-shout, but that’s because of an entirely different story that they might or might not have influenced. 

(During the 19th century, they had a brief encounter with those Brothers after some women storytellers contacted Andy that they were not receiving the credit for the folktales that they had transferred from generation to generation. It wasn’t something they usually did, but a little frightening never killed anybody, so for the fun of it, they dressed up as characters of the stories to scare the two brothers. It didn’t have the expected effect, but at least the women were added to the introduction of their collection, although not in a positive light. When they found a copy a few years after its publication, Andy almost ran back to Germany to tell them what she thought of it and them but was convinced not to as they had more pressing matters such as finding the new immortal that they had been dreaming about. )

**Author's Note:**

> Sometimes I dream of becoming a fairy tale scholar, but then quickly realise how much more papers and everything else that would take, I'll just use the knowledge I've gathered in these last couple of years to write fanfiction 
> 
> hope you enjoyed! Kudos and comments make the old guard heal faster!


End file.
